The days of lone samurais are over  

14 February 2008 

How can a consulting company provide up-to-date solutions to the participants of the ever-changing FMCG market? For this, one needs to be aware of all the properties of the industry, as well as the changes that have taken place. So, it is worth reviewing the changes of the past 15 years…

What are the characteristics of a sales organisation pioneering in the early 1990s?
A dynamic and charismatic regional sales representative that spends most of his/her time in the market himself/herself, and is familiar to practically all merchants. And what about the team? Everyone is an “independent” samurai holding a significant scope of decision-making in their respective areas. Their decisions greatly affect the turnover and, in many cases, even the future of the given points of sale. It is a fact that in those times a job as a regional sales representative with an international company had a high social prestige, and the final winner of each position had to outmatch hundreds of applicants. This alone lent itself to the assumption that the selected ones are apt and ready to face challenge.

What expectations did companies have towards the activities of their representatives?
He/she was expected to win most assignments that were important for the company image and/or a rising turnover. At that time, administration consisted of a couple of files only, and the samurais reported once a week (if at all).
Let us add that the samurais had a considerable background in those days. The trunks of their hatchbacks were often crowded with motivation equipment, and a significant limit was available to them to implement individual solutions.

How typical was training in those times, and what role did it play?
In the early 90s, sales staff training in the FMCG sector was a undoubtedly typical phenomenon. Training was seen in two areas: one was classroom training either delivered by an internal or an external trainer (often foreign, delegated by the parent company). Considering the outstanding communication skills and the extraversion of the staff, the trainings were only directed at conscious application of the steps related to the sales process. The other training area was on-the-job training delivered by the regional sales representative. The goal was to reinforce what had been taught during the classroom training.

Where are the samurais today?
Those that stayed in the industry nowadays fulfil various roles in company managements. Nostalgic anecdotes have been around about old heroic acts and the impressive acquisition of market shares achieved month by month in a formulating market.

How different is the sales activity and organisation of an FMCG company today?
It is more complicated! The market has changed, with centres of gravity and customer habits totally transformed. Nearly all areas have been discovered and encircled, and opportunities to achieve impressing results are only rarely available.
Nowadays, similarly to a number of other areas, the key to success lies in companies’ capacity for change and paradigm shift. Competition is going on in special areas, and the results are less graphic.
The role of the individual has changed, and the time of samurais is over. All these are not supposed to mean that high-quality individual performance is not important. On the contrary, a high level of creativeness, analysis of situations, conceptual thinking and an array of other competencies are needed for a sales representative of our age to succeed. In the absence of these, a sales representative is but a well-paid postman or maybe an administrator for the company. In addition, coordination of various special areas, adjustment that follows regular evaluation of situations, and continuous fine-tuning are characteristic of today’s fighting style, which also requires conscious leadership behaviour in addition to sales skills.

What has changed in terms of expectations?
It is true for almost all participants of the sales organisation that the number one expectation is to implement tasks within regulated limits instead of individual solutions and improvisation. It is understandable, as it is impossible for an individual to understand each movement of such a complicated organisation and every impact of individual changes. On the other hand, it also raises the problem of decreased motivation of the various participants for the same reasons. For sales representatives, results arising from their own activities are less visible, and they may see their assignments pointless in may cases.
On top of all that, a complicated and fast-moving organisation is rather hungry for information. Administrative functions of the sales staff have multiplied. Using up-to-date technical devices, data and information are incessantly zigzagging among various participants.

How can Develor Consulting Inc. be of help to today’s companies?
In a certain way, consultants are in a lucky position. In the course of their assignments, they can gain an insight into changes in the various sectors. We with Develor have not just accompanied the past 15 years of the FMCG market but also participated actively in the training and development courses. We have used our experience to develop and update our services. We are perfectly aware that while a well-customised training course was sufficient in the early 90s, today we need to develop complex solutions for our partners.

What is meant by complex solutions?
Training certainly has remained the central tool for skills development; at the same time, it is pre-training, follow-up and supplementary activities that determine success. These services can be classified as activities to be carried out by our consulting, coaching and event organisation business lines.
Sales may falter, team results may not be apparent, a product launch may fail, clients may be dissatisfied, etc. The fault may stem from a number of problems. The competencies necessary for changes may be absent, or the team may have lost motivation, or a sales representative may have been assigned so many tasks that leave no energy to deal with the core activity. We could continue this list endlessly. The diagnostic solutions of our consulting business line primarily help explore the roots of problems. Tools available to us include but are not limited to the Assessment Center, Development Center, 360-degree assessment, Skill matrix, etc. In addition to targeted and customised training courses delivered after the problem has been explored, a solution may also be brought by process control.
It is also a common problem for managers who have completed any and all possible training courses that they apply the acquired skills inappropriately. For them, individual and team coaching techniques may yield the expected results.
Certainly, our range of training courses has also been considerably extended. A Leadership Academy has been developed to train managers, and our Develor Sales Mandala solution has been set up for sales staffs (STR magazine, No. 2007/2).
Our experience suggests that impressive development can be achieved if the techniques listed are applied within a complex development process to match each particular situation.

How is it all put into practice?
Various levels of cooperation are possible, with roles varying from training suppliers to strategic partners. Following personal interviews and considering possibilities, our experts of the particular field work out a concept recommended to a given company. It is worth meeting with Develor Consulting Inc.’s experts free of any obligations in order to seek their opinion on problems, planning or development.
Success is our shared interest, as improving results and return on investments in the wake of our solutions represent the way for us to become strategic partners.

Source: STR Magazine